Strategies To Manage Your Online Reputation
FREE DOWNLOAD: The Formula To Craft A Powerful Social Media Voice
FREE DOWNLOAD: Handling The Haters: How To Manage Negative PR On Social Media
Your social media users have the power to escalate issues by just one post or tweet. This gave users the ability to give love to the brands they like, and hate on the ones that they don’t. This presents both an opportunity and a curse to companies that want to take advantage of social media. Managing your online reputation matters now more than ever.
Here are five strategies to get more of those like and love emojis from your audience.
Set up customers service accounts. This is a great way of showing how valuable your customers are to you, and how responsive your brand is. Many large companies use social media accounts as a customer service hotline. When customers see that you are taking the initiative to address their needs and let their voices be heard, you’ll be able to boost and improve your online reputation. They also prevents customers from airing out their concerns on their own personal pages. Remember, it’s better for people to reach out to you directly than for them to just publicly shame you. You can use Facebook Messenger, have your Twitter able to accept DMs, and have Instagram available to respond to customers. Be available for conversation with your audience, and make sure that you or a community manager is monitoring accounts to be able to respond in a timely manner.
Use positive feedback. Encourage your customers to share positive feedback by asking them how they felt about the product or service. If you get this written feedback, place these testimonials around your store or page, product display or website. Many customers are fast to shout hate on their social media accounts, but often forget sharing their positive experiences. Don’t wait until there’s a problem. The best way to maintain an online reputation is to create a lot of brand advocates.
Listen to conversation. You’re not the only one posting about your company, service or product. Others are doing it as well. Don’t just stand by the sidelines; listen to what they’re saying. Some customers may share suggestions, feedback, or start a complaint-fest around you. Don’t be unaware of these issues.
Be a storyteller. Use your company’s history and journey to create a personal connection with your customers. By creating content that revolves around your story and creates emotional engagement, you’ll be able to better relate with your users online. Remember to be conversational and personal.
Don’t be a hard sale. Nothing is worse than seeing a company that all they care about is getting money out of their customers pockets. Use your channel to post announcements, deliver information, provide values that’s useful, and to be a leader in your industry. Reputation management is a tricky sport. The best way to stop a social fiasco is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
To learn more about how large PR firms respond to criticism and backlash on social media, download my free PDF on Handling the Haters, Managing Negative PR on Social Media. To get a handle on developing the proper social media voice for your brand, download my free guide, The Formula to Craft a Powerful Social Media Voice.
